![]() ![]() There’s little doubt that this has always been a Broncos-first sort of town. A shift to winning couldn’t change Denver’s location on the map – in a weird time zone in flyover territory – and it didn’t shift everyone’s view of the Nuggets. It was the Joker’s blossoming into a do-everything force that made the Nuggets a team to watch. The other two ABAers, the Pacers and Nets, have been to the finals but lost. The Nuggets took their name off that list, then joined San Antonio as the second original ABA team to capture the NBA’s biggest prize. But never quite good enough to break through against the biggest stars and better teams to the east, west and south of them.īefore this season, there were only two teams founded before 1980 – the Nuggets and Clippers – that had never been to an NBA Finals. Over their near five-decade stay in the league, the Nuggets have been the epitome of a lovable NBA backbencher – at times entertaining, adorned by rainbows on their uniforms and headlined by colorful characters on the floor and bench. It felt almost perfect that an unheralded and once-chubby second-round draft pick from Serbia would be the one to lift Denver to the top of a league that, for decades, has been dominated by superstars, first-round draft picks and players who lead the world in sneaker and jersey sales. “What I was most proud about is, throughout the game, if your offense is not working and your shots are not falling, you have to dig in on the defensive end,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. Their beautiful game turned into a slugfest, but they figured it out nonetheless. True to the Nuggets’ personality, they kept pressing, came at their opponent in waves and figured out how to win a game that went against their type. Somehow, after shooting 6.7% from 3 - the worst first half in the history of the finals (10-shot minimum) they only trailed by seven. It made the Nuggets tentative on both sides of the court for the rest of the half. ![]()
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